A United States federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from pressuring state election officials to withhold ballots from registered voters suspected of being non-US citizens.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday barred the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from sending states lists of voters the administration believes may not be citizens.
The order also prevents the agencies from asking election officials to separate those voters’ ballots or refuse to count them until their citizenship status is verified.
The ruling is the latest legal setback for Trump’s efforts to increase federal involvement in election administration ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
The case followed a campaign by the administration to send letters to election officials in California and Washington, demanding that ballots from individuals identified on federal lists be withheld.
Voting rights and privacy advocates challenged the move, arguing that it could disenfranchise eligible voters and violate the Privacy Act of 1974, which restricts the federal government’s disclosure of sensitive personal information.
The Justice Department, however, maintained that its letters were part of an effort to enforce federal laws prohibiting non-citizens from voting and did not constitute a separate policy that could be challenged in court.
Judge raises concerns over reliability of federal data
In her ruling, Chutkan expressed concerns about the reliability of the administration’s data, warning that inaccurate information could lead to eligible voters being wrongly prevented from casting ballots.
Non-citizen voting in federal elections is illegal, but available evidence shows that such cases are exceedingly rare.
Trump has repeatedly accused states of allowing non-citizens to vote, despite the lack of evidence supporting claims of widespread non-citizen voting.
The administration’s efforts have also faced challenges in other courts.
Earlier, a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the Justice Department’s request to compel California to set aside mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials suspected of being non-citizens.
An appeals court also refused to grant an emergency order blocking the ballots.
Appeals court ruling offers administration separate victory
Despite Chutkan’s decision, the Trump administration secured a separate legal victory on Monday.
A panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the federal government to threaten state and local election officials with prosecution if they failed to comply with its demands concerning alleged non-citizen voters.
The ruling came in a separate case and does not overturn Chutkan’s order.
The legal disputes come as Republicans seek to retain control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections.
